--- title: Lucy Fossil: How One of the Oldest Human Ancestors Died description: The world's best known human ancestor fossil—widely known as Lucy—likely died following a fall from a tree, according to new research canonical: https://time.com/4470561/lucy-death-fossil-human-ansector/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-08-29T15:26:45.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T00:15:19.392Z article:section: Science og:title: How One of the World's Oldest Human Ancestors Died og:description: The world's best known human ancestor fossil—widely known as Lucy—likely died following a fall from a tree, according to new research og:url: https://time.com/4470561/lucy-death-fossil-human-ansector/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt51c0bfafa385aa72/6988a401cd1bba71417021d2/lucy-fossil-death-tree.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: "Lucy" Exhibit To Open In Houston Amid Protests og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How One of the World's Oldest Human Ancestors Died twitter:description: The world's best known human ancestor fossil—widely known as Lucy—likely died following a fall from a tree, according to new research twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt51c0bfafa385aa72/6988a401cd1bba71417021d2/lucy-fossil-death-tree.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How One of the World's Oldest Human Ancestors Died > Sponsored content. 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Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-futureproof-2026q3/newsletters?i=289b9a3b-2e4b-4e26-b9bf-80e94f0759a1&cr=time-nl-futureproof-2026q3-v1)  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Aug 29, 2016 3:26 PM UTC  The 3.2 million year old fossilized remains of "Lucy", the most complete example of the hominid Australopithecus afarensis, is displayed at the Houston Museum of Natural Science in Houston on Aug. 28, 2007. The 3.2 million year old fossilized remains of "Lucy", the most complete example of the hominid Australopithecus afarensis, is displayed at the Houston Museum of Natural Science in Houston on Aug. 28, 2007. Dave Einsel—Getty Images  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Aug 29, 2016 3:26 PM UTC The world’s best-known human ancestor fossil—widely known as [Lucy](http://time.com/4126011/lucy-australopithecus-discovery/)—likely died following a fall from a tree, according to new [research](http://nature.com/articles/doi:10.1038/nature19332). Scientists behind the study, published in the journal _Nature_, took CT scans of the 3.18 million-year-old fossil to evaluate what caused Lucy’s bones fractures. A comparison of Lucy’s broken bones with those in clinical cases of chimpanzees suggests she sustained the injuries falling from a tree, the researchers found. A series of clean breaks in the right upper arm were the most telling indication of a tree fall. Lucy likely outstretched her arms to break her fall from the tree, causing compression fractures, according to the study. She sustained other fractures on her left shoulder, left knee and left pelvis in addition to on a rib. **Read More**: [How Fossil Fuels (Really) May Have Killed the Dinosaurs](http://time.com/4404545/dinosaur-extinctions-fossil-fuels/) “Death is one of those things that really does permit us to bridge fairly deep breadths of distance between us and others,” said study author John Kappelman, University of Texas at Austin paleoanthropologist, in a [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODuZsLQ5ZgQ). “This was a jump of empathy I had that made me more cognizant of her as an individual.” The study fuels an ongoing debate about the extent to which Lucy and her fellow members of the _Australopithecus afarensis_ species, an early human ancestor, lived in the trees. Lucy might have lived largely on the ground but climbed into the trees at night to find safety from predators, Kappelman suggested. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4470561/lucy-death-fossil-human-ansector/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4470561/lucy-death-fossil-human-ansector/"},"headline":"How One of the World's Oldest Human Ancestors Died","datePublished":"2016-08-29T15:26:45.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T00:15:19.392Z","description":"New details behind Lucy's death provide insight into how she lived","url":"https://time.com/4470561/lucy-death-fossil-human-ansector/","keywords":["fossils"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt51c0bfafa385aa72/6988a401cd1bba71417021d2/lucy-fossil-death-tree.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Justin Worland","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/justin-worland/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt51c0bfafa385aa72/6988a401cd1bba71417021d2/lucy-fossil-death-tree.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"\"Lucy\" Exhibit To Open In Houston Amid Protests","caption":"The 3.2 million year old fossilized remains of \"Lucy\", the most complete example of the hominid Australopithecus afarensis, is displayed at the Houston Museum of Natural Science in Houston on Aug. 28, 2007.","creditText":"Dave Einsel—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/fossils/","name":"fossils"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4470561/lucy-death-fossil-human-ansector/","name":"How One of the World's Oldest Human Ancestors Died"}}]}] ```